Psalms 6:2

6:2 Have mercy on me, ¹  Lord, for I am frail!

Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking! ² 

Psalms 51:8

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ³ 

May the bones ⁴  you crushed rejoice! ⁵ 

Psalms 103:3-4

103:3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,

who heals all your diseases, ⁶ 

103:4 who delivers ⁷  your life from the Pit, ⁸ 

who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,

Psalms 107:17-22

107:17 They acted like fools in their rebellious ways, ⁹ 

and suffered because of their sins.

107:18 They lost their appetite for all food, ¹⁰ 

and they drew near the gates of death.

107:19 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

107:20 He sent them an assuring word ¹¹  and healed them;

he rescued them from the pits where they were trapped. ¹² 

107:21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people! ¹³ 

107:22 Let them present thank offerings,

and loudly proclaim what he has done! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 118:18

118:18 The Lord severely ¹⁵  punished me,

but he did not hand me over to death.

Psalms 147:3

147:3 He heals ¹⁶  the brokenhearted,

and bandages their wounds.

Genesis 20:17

20:17 Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children.

Exodus 15:26

15:26 He said, “If you will diligently obey ¹⁷  the Lord your God, and do what is right ¹⁸  in his sight, and pay attention ¹⁹  to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all ²⁰  the diseases ²¹  that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.” ²² 

Exodus 15:2

15:2 The Lord ²³  is my strength and my song, ²⁴ 

and he has become my salvation.

This is my God, and I will praise him, ²⁵ 

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Exodus 20:5

20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, ²⁶  for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous ²⁷  God, responding to ²⁸  the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations ²⁹  of those who reject me, ³⁰ 

James 5:14-15

5:14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint ³¹  him with oil in the name of the Lord. 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ³² 

[6:2]  ¹ tn Or “show me favor.”

[6:2]  ² tn Normally the verb בָּהַל (bahal) refers to an emotional response and means “tremble with fear, be terrified” (see vv. 3, 10). Perhaps here the “bones” are viewed as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. However, the verb may describe one of the effects of his physical ailment, perhaps a fever. In Ezek 7:27 the verb describes how the hands of the people will shake with fear when they experience the horrors of divine judgment.

[51:8]  ³ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ⁴ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ⁵ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[103:3]  ⁶ tn This relatively rare noun refers to deadly diseases (see Deut 29:22; Jer 14:18; 16:4; 2 Chr 21:19).

[103:4]  ⁷ tn Or “redeems.”

[103:4]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term שַׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 30:9; 49:9; 55:24.

[107:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “fools [they were] because of the way of their rebellion.”

[107:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all food their appetite loathed.”

[107:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he sent his word.” This probably refers to an oracle of assurance which announced his intention to intervene (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 59).

[107:20]  ¹² tn Heb “he rescued from their traps.” The Hebrew word שְׁחִית (shekhit, “trap”) occurs only here and in Lam 4:20, where it refers to a trap or pit in which one is captured. Because of the rarity of the term and the absence of an object with the verb “rescued,” some prefer to emend the text of Ps 107:20, reading מִשַׁחַת חַיָּתָם (mishakhat khayyatam, “[he rescued] their lives from the pit”). Note also NIV “from the grave,” which interprets the “pit” as Sheol or the grave.

[107:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.” See v. 8.

[107:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and let them proclaim his works with a ringing cry.”

[118:18]  ¹⁵ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following verbal idea.

[147:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the one who heals.”

[15:26]  ¹⁷ tn The construction uses the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of שָׁמַע (shama’). The meaning of the verb is idiomatic here because it is followed by “to the voice of Yahweh your God.” When this is present, the verb is translated “obey.” The construction is in a causal clause. It reads, “If you will diligently obey.” Gesenius points out that the infinitive absolute in a conditional clause also emphasizes the importance of the condition on which the consequence depends (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[15:26]  ¹⁸ tn The word order is reversed in the text: “and the right in his eyes you do,” or, “[if] you do what is right in his eyes.” The conditional idea in the first clause is continued in this clause.

[15:26]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “give ear.” This verb and the next are both perfect tenses with the vav (ו) consecutive; they continue the sequence of the original conditional clause.

[15:26]  ²⁰ tn The substantive כָּל־ (kol, “all of”) in a negative clause can be translated “none of.”

[15:26]  ²¹ sn The reference is no doubt to the plagues that Yahweh has just put on them. These will not come on God’s true people. But the interesting thing about a conditional clause like this is that the opposite is also true – “if you do not obey, then I will bring these diseases.”

[15:26]  ²² tn The form is רֹפְאֶךָ (rofÿ’ekha), a participle with a pronominal suffix. The word is the predicate after the pronoun “I”: “I [am] your healer.” The suffix is an objective genitive – the Lord heals them.

[15:2]  ²³ tn Heb “Yah.” Moses’ poem here uses a short form of the name Yahweh, traditionally rendered in English by “the LORD.”

[15:2]  ²⁴ tn The word וְזִמְרָת (vÿzimrat) is problematic. It probably had a suffix yod (י) that was accidentally dropped because of the yod (י) on the divine name following. Most scholars posit another meaning for the word. A meaning of “power” fits the line fairly well, forming a hendiadys with strength – “strength and power” becoming “strong power.” Similar lines are in Isa 12:2 and Ps 118:14. Others suggest “protection” or “glory.” However, there is nothing substantially wrong with “my song” in the line – only that it would be a nicer match if it had something to do with strength.

[15:2]  ²⁵ tn The word נָוָה (navah) occurs only here. It may mean “beautify, adorn” with praises (see BDB 627 s.v.). See also M. Dahood, “Exodus 15:2: ‘anwehu and Ugaritic snwt,” Bib 59 (1979): 260-61; and M. Klein, “The Targumic Tosefta to Exodus 15:2,” JJS 26 (1975): 61-67; and S. B. Parker, “Exodus 15:2 Again,” VT 21 (1971): 373-79.

[20:5]  ²⁶ tn The combination of these two verbs customarily refers to the worship of pagan deities (e.g., Deut 17:3: 30:17; Jer 8:2; see J. J. Stamm and M. E. Andrew, The Ten Commandments in Recent Research [SBT], 86). The first verb is לאֹ־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה (lo’ tishtakhaveh), now to be classified as a hishtaphel imperfect from חָוָה (khavah; BDB 1005 s.v. שׁחה), “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” It is used of the true worship of God as well. The second verb is וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם (vÿlo’ to’ovdem). The two could be taken as a hendiadys: “you will not prostrate yourself to serve them.” In an interesting side comment U. Cassuto (Exodus, 242) offers an explanation of the spelling of the second verb: he suggests that it was spelled with the qamets khatuf vowel to show contempt for pagan worship, as if their conduct does not even warrant a correct spelling of the word “serve.” Gesenius says that the forms like this are anomalous, but he wonders if they were pointed as if the verb was a Hophal with the meaning “you shall not allow yourself to be brought to worship them” (GKC 161 §60.b). But this is unlikely.

[20:5]  ²⁷ sn The word “jealous” is the same word often translated “zeal” or “zealous.” The word describes a passionate intensity to protect or defend something that is jeopardized. The word can also have the sense of “envy,” but in that case the object is out of bounds. God’s zeal or jealousy is to protect his people or his institutions or his honor. Yahweh’s honor is bound up with the life of his people.

[20:5]  ²⁸ tn Verses 5 and 6 are very concise, and the word פָּקַד (paqad) is difficult to translate. Often rendered “visiting,” it might here be rendered “dealing with” in a negative sense or “punishing,” but it describes positive attention in 13:19. When used of God, it essentially means that God intervenes in the lives of people for blessing or for cursing. Some would simply translate the participle here as “punishing” the children for the sins of the fathers (cf. Lev 18:25; Isa 26:21; Jer 29:32; 36:31; Hos 1:4; Amos 3:2). That is workable, but may not say enough. The verse may indicate that those who hate Yahweh and do not keep his commandments will repeat the sins their fathers committed and suffer for them. Deut 24:16 says that individuals will die for their own sins and not their father’s sins (see also Deut 7:10 and Ezek 18). It may have more to do with patterns of sin being repeated from generation to generation; if the sin and the guilt were not fully developed in the one generation, then left unchecked they would develop and continue in the next. But it may also indicate that the effects of the sins of the fathers will be experienced in the following generations, especially in the case of Israel as a national entity (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 243). God is showing here that his ethical character is displayed in how he deals with sin and righteousness, all of which he describes as giving strong motivation for loyalty to him and for avoiding idolatry. There is a justice at work in the dealings of God that is not present in the pagan world.

[20:5]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew word for “generations” is not found in v. 5 or 6. The numbers are short for a longer expression, which is understood as part of the description of the children already mentioned (see Deut 7:9, where “generation” [דּוֹר, dor] is present and more necessary, since “children” have not been mentioned).

[20:5]  ³⁰ tn This is an important qualification to the principle. The word rendered “reject” is often translated “hate” and carries with it the idea of defiantly rejecting and opposing God and his word. Such people are doomed to carry on the sins of their ancestors and bear guilt with them.

[5:14]  ³¹ tn Grk “anointing.”

[5:15]  ³² tn Grk “it will be forgiven him.”